GoPro Hero 5 – leaked video and surf photography features

Vimeo user Konrad Iturbe posted a video which appears to come directly from the latest GoPro android app and features the back of the unreleased GoPro Hero 5 camera.

There’s some speculation on the internet about what features the Hero 5 could have based on this video, so I’m going to give you my thoughts from a surf photography perspective.

GoPro Hero 5 features

I assume there will be a bump in the resolution and/or frame rate for the top end model, but we’ll have to wait and see for the actual specifications. Here’s some ideas based on the video:

  • Built in touchscreen interface – like the Hero 4 silver
  • Compatible with the current housings
  • No Hero bus connector on the back for accessories
  • GPS plus accelerometer built in
  • Waterproof without a case to 10m

GoPro hero 5 touch screen

The touch screen is obvious – I liked the built in touch screen on my Hero 4 silver and it was one of the main reasons I bought it over the more expensive Black edition which didn’t have one. Ignore people who say it’s useless because you can’t use it in a housing – that’s not what it’s for.

GoPro Hero 5 is compatible with Hero 4 housings

From the shape of the camera in the video it looks pretty hopeful that it will fit inside the current hero 4 style housings.

This is important because the Hero 4 Session is a different form factor – a square shape rather than a rectangle, so it can’t be used with these housings.

If you’ve got a bunch of great KNEKT accessories that work with your GoPro Hero 4 case like me then you’ll want to use them with the new camera.

No hero bus connector on the GoPro Hero 5

The lack of hero bus on the back is no big deal for me, the only reason I’ve ever used it was to attach a separate LCD screen to, and obviously that’s not necessary if there’s one built in.

Some people used it for extended batteries though, and the 3D housing used it for synchronising the two cameras. The battery life has never been an issue for me when shooting surf photography and you can sync up the cameras using a wifi app or remote control, so no downside here.

GoPro Hero 5 GPS and accelerometer

I wrote about a GPS BacPac, including how I made my own version, ages ago on this blog. Now there’s no hero bus connector on the back, it’ll have to be built in.

With GoPro owning the Dashware software and wanting to get into being a media outlet as well as a hardware company, it’s a no-brainer that these features would be built into the next generation of cameras.

I think the top level black edition Hero 5 will have the lot, allowing you to track location and different movements whilst recording video. the other ones might leave these out and just have a bump to the current top end resolution.

GoPro Hero 5 waterproof without case

Just like the Hero 4 session, the Hero 5 has a raised button on the top, the fact that the Hero bus connector has gone and this design change means that it’s likely it’ll have the same 10m waterproof rating as the Hero 4 session without a case.

I think it’ll still fit inside the standard cases though, and that’ll be the recommended way to use it when shooting surf photos or video.

What do you think? are there any more clues that I’ve missed?


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *